All Entries Tagged With: "Dogs"

Dog Therapy

I have a dog. She is a 2 year old, one-eared rat terrier named Kaya.

Shortly after we were married in February of 2007 we realized that I was again suffering from depression. I am a huge dog-lover, and hadn’t had a dog since 2001 when my dog Cheyenne passed away. Tareak grew up in a house where animals weren’t allowed in the house, and told me I could have a dog if it lived outside. Now, I’m not a huge outdoors person, and so the idea of having to go outside to see my dog was not appealing. Every day when he’d go to work I’d jump on Craigslist and look for the perfect dog in hopes I’d convince him of wanting an indoor dog. One night I came across an ad for a one-eared rat terrier and the pictures just made me laugh. I had never seen a one-eared dog before. By the time Tareak warmed up to the idea of a one-eared dog, the post on Craigslist was gone. A week later it was re-posted and Kaya came into our lives. The main Tareak agreed to getting a dog was because he felt bad that he worked a lot and I was home by myself.

Kaya has been a great source of therapy for me. One of the major symptoms of depression that I suffer from is excessive sleeping. I have an extremely hard time motivating myself to get out of bed in the morning. I can just never think of anything important enough, or exciting enough to make me want to get out of a warm comfortable bed. This is where Kaya comes in. Kaya has a bed next to ours and she is pretty good about sleeping when I sleep, but unfortunately for depressed me, she can’t sleep as long as I can. There is just something about a one-eared 15 lb dog that looks so helpless. At least 75% of the time she is the reason I get up in the morning. I figure she is lonely or needs more food and I just feel bad. It is a shame that I can’t be motivated enough to get up on my own, but hopefully one day I’ll get to that point.

Rat terriers, especially young ones like Kaya, have a lot of energy. It is usually recommended that people get a dog that is a few steps under you on the “energy scale”. Well, Kaya’s energy is definitely more comparable with Tareak’s than with mine. This means that she needs a lot of exercise. We have a yard and a doggie door so she can go outside and chase squirrels and cats whenever she wants. It is easy for me to think that this is enough exercise for her. Unfortunately for depressed me, she needs to go on walks as well. I enjoy going for walks, but with my depressed brain it is easy to forget that I enjoy going for walks and just focus on all the reasons why I don’t want to go. “It is too cold outside”, “It is too hot outside”, “Putting on my shoes takes too much effort”, “I don’t feel like putting a bra on today”, the list goes on and on. Since Washington state is rainy much of the time, we decided to buy a treadmill. We had seen “The Dog Whisperer” use one for his dogs, so we decided to give it a try. Now you’d think that after exhausting my excuses for not taking Kaya on a walk outside that I’d at least be able to put her on the treadmill, well you thought wrong. Most days it seems too exhausting and like a HUGE task to put her on the treadmill for 1/2 hour. She loves the treadmill. She gets treats while she walks on the treadmill, but I have to sit next to the treadmill on the hard floor and give her the treats while she walks. Some days even that can seem like too much for me. But then she goes and stands on the treadmill and waits for me to turn it on, and I just can’t deny her. Something so small would not even register on most people’s list of things they accomplished that day, but putting her on the treadmill is huge for me. Some days this is the only thing I accomplish.

Research shows that just petting your dog releases feel good hormones. A 2004 article on MSNBC states:

“Now there’s new research from the University of Missouri-Columbia suggesting the hormonal changes that occur when humans and dogs interact could help people cope with depression and certain stress-related disorders. Preliminary results from a study show that a few minutes of stroking our pet dog prompts a release of a number of “feel good” hormones in humans, including serotonin, prolactin and oxytocin.”

So when all else fails, and the puppy eyes can’t get me out of bed in the morning, or get me to take Kaya on a walk, at least I know I’m still getting therapy from just giving her a good scratch on the belly.